Sessional_Paper_1931 — Page 144

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In tabulating the birthplaces of the non-Chinese races, considerable difficulty was experienced by the posting clerks owing to the over-meticulous accuracy of some of the residents of the Colony which taxed the geographical knowledge of the whole staff. The members of the posting staff were all locally born, and it could not be expected of even the best of them that they should be able to enter up the country of origin of persons who stated that they were born in Glasgow, Dorking, Coventry or Tyrone. Reference had, of course, to be made to the Superintendent in all such cases, and while a good guess could often be made, the help of an atlas and gazetteer was frequently necessary to determine the exact location of birthplaces, which were given without any amplification, such as Jonesborough and Guayaquil.

(i) Civilians. The chief birthplaces are Hong Kong (30.8%), England (17.0%), India (14.3%), and Japan (10.0%).

(ii) Indian Civilians. A subsidiary table (27) detailing birthplaces by provinces in India has been prepared at the request of the Indian Census Commissioner.

(iii) Defence Forces. Separate lists (28) for the Defence Forces have been pre- pared as when added to the Civilian list they are likely to swamp several of the totals. The

presence of a Scotch and a Welsh regiment raise the totals for these two countries, but on the whole the Navy, Army, and Air Force is preponderantly English.

Only 83,194 of the total population of the Colony, Chinese, non-Chinese, Civilians and Defence Forces, claim to be British or Naturalised British subjects (see Table 25). This represents only 9.79% of the total; excluding the Defence Forces, the per- centage is 8.8% only. Of these 61,604 are of Chinese race and 21,590 of the non- Chinese races. Excluding the Defence Forces, the number of British subjects of the non-Chinese races is 12,637.

The number is made up as follows

British Subjects.

Males

Females

Total

Of British races

3,727

2.898

6,625

Of other European races

121

164

285

Eurasians

345

369

714

Local Portuguese

529

560

1,089

Indians

2,717

754

3,471

Japanese

8

8

Other races (Malays &c.)

221

224

445

7,660

4,977

12,637

Of the non-Chinese population in 1921, 7,889 claimed to be British subjects. The Portuguese is the next nationality represented in point of numbers. There were 2,789 or, excluding 172 on the Portuguese gunboat present on Census Night, 2,617. Of these 473 are of Chinese race, leaving 2,144 non-Chinese. In 1921 the number claiming Portuguese nationality was 2,057 Of the total local Portuguese 1,089 claimed to he British subjects and 2,088 entered themselves as Portuguese citizens. It will be seen that 4 "Local Portuguese" were born in Portugal, somewhat a contradiction in terms, if it were not that they entered their race as "Macanese".

The Japanese in 1921 totalled 1,585. In 1931, 2,249 have claimed that nation- ality, 61 of whom were of Chinese race, leaving a balance of 2.188. Japanese ship- ping accounted for 350 so that the resident population is 1,838.

Citizens of the United States of America numbered 470 in 1921. On this occasion the total of non-Chinese residents was 710, of whom 292 were Filipinos. In addition, there were 170 on the American transport present on the Census Date and 536 per- sons of Chinese race claimed American citizenship, making a total of 1,416.

There were 278 persons of French nationality in the resident population of non- Chinese races, of whom, however, 78 were Annamites and Tonkinese. There were also 53 of Chinese race who claimed French nationality and a further 33 were present on a French gunboat, making a total of 364. The total in 1921 was 208.

Persons of non-Chinese race who claimed German nationality numbered 157, and persons who claimed Russian nationality 106.